She supported pioneering cooperative communities, and also had extended theoretical and practical involvement in early childhood education through the formative years of the infant school movement in England.
She was born at 11 Canonbury Place, Islington, to Francis Ronalds and Jane née Field, who were Unitarians and well-to-do wholesale cheesemongers in Upper Thames Street, London.
She went to America in 1824 with the social reformers Richard Flower and Robert Owen to visit her brother Hugh, who had helped found the county town of Albion, Illinois.
In addition, she developed close friendships with influential women who had interests in educational reform; these included the philanthropist Lady Byron and the translator Sarah Austin.
[16] Ronalds' extensive network of colleagues, friends and relatives facilitated this dissemination and uptake of Froebel's philosophy in Britain, particularly in privately funded schools and in middle-class families.